The present invention generally relates to the field of digital information appliances and particularly to systems and methods for protecting digital information appliances from environmental influences.
Environmental influences can cause damage to digital information appliances as well as a loss of important data contained in the appliance. Extreme temperatures, humidity, particulate matter such as smoke and dust, harsh movement, barometric pressure, magnetic fields and the like may interfere with the electronics and mechanics in the digital information appliance. For example, environmental influences may include both cold temperatures and high ambient humidity, thereby causing water vapor to condense on components of the digital information appliance. This condensation may cause an electrical short and damage to media containing memory devices such as a typical hard drive, floppy disk drive, and the like. For instance, a user receiving a digital information appliance configured as a desktop computer may have the computer shipped in the winter months. If the user lived in a cold climate, the digital information appliance, cold from the shipping process, once brought into home of the user may form condensation on components contained in the appliance. This condensation may cause serious harm to the appliance and possibly injure the user. In another example, particulate matter such as smoke and dust can cause irreparable harm to media containing memory devices so that the data contained in these devices may be permanently lost.
Previous methods of addressing environmental influences involved warning of the presence of the environmental influence, but did not take actions to protect the digital information appliance from the environmental influence. For example, a typical computer system may warn of a danger to an environmental influence, such as a low temperature, but did not take action to protect the system. Rather, the system relied on maintenance personnel to take actions to protect the system, the system itself being defenseless to the environmental influences.
Harsh movement may also cause damage to a digital information appliance. Today, digital information appliances are available in a wide range of configurations, with some of them being portable and handheld designs. Dropping a digital information appliance may cause a great deal of damage both to the appliance and components contained in the appliance. Therefore, it may be desirable to employ methods of protecting a digital information appliance from harsh movement and to warn a user of the potentially damaging influence.
Therefore, it may be desirable to employ a system and method wherein the digital information appliance may be protected from environmental influences.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for protecting a digital information appliance from an environmental influence. The digital information appliance is capable of detecting an environmental influence and determining if the detected environmental influence is potentially harmful. Determining if an environmental influence is potentially harmful may include determining if the present state of the environmental influence is harmful and/or determining if a trend of the environmental influence indicates that it may become potentially harmful. If the digital information appliance detects a potentially harmful environmental influence, the digital information appliance is capable of protecting the digital information appliance. In an additional embodiment, the digital information appliance is protected in a manner corresponding to the nature of the environmental influence.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, a system and method for protecting a digital information appliance from an environmental influence includes detecting the environmental influence and determining if the detected environmental influence is potentially harmful. If the digital information appliance detects a potentially harmful environmental influence, the digital information appliance is capable of suspending operation while the potentially harmful environmental influence is present
In another aspect of the present invention, a system and method for protecting a digital information appliance from a potentially harmful environmental influence including movement includes detecting movement of the digital information appliance and determining if the movement is potentially harmful to the digital information appliance. When the detected movement of the digital information appliance is determined to be potentially harmful, the digital information appliance responds to the potentially harmful movement.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, a system and method for protecting data in a digital information appliance from a potentially harmful environmental influence includes detecting a potentially harmful environmental influence and initiating a data saving routine. The data saving routine is capable of saving data contained in the digital information appliance so as to protect the data. In an exemplary embodiment, the data saving routine includes transferring data to a remote system.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a system and method for protecting a digital information appliance from a potentially harmful environmental influence including a cold temperature includes detecting a temperature of at least one of the digital information appliance and an environment of the digital information appliance and determining if at least one of the detected temperature and detected temperature trend is potentially harmful to the digital information appliance. When at least one of the detected temperature and detected temperature trend is determined to be potentially harmful to the digital information appliance, the digital information appliance is capable of initiating a warming procedure so as to warm at least a portion of the digital information appliance.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.